12.06.2002

France’s Acces Industrie to reveal rescue plan

Investors, creditors and financial analysts will tomorrow hear plans for the re-financing of Acces Industrie, one of Europe’s most ambitious and fastest growing access and crane hire companies. The meeting is scheduled for 10.00 at Paris’s Hotel Warwick and is expected to be well attended.

The crisis at Accès Industrie was caused by a liquidity problem which prevented the company from making scheduled monthly repayments to a bank. Trading in the company’s shares on the Paris Bourse was suspended on June 4th at the company’s own request.

A statement from the company said that it had a current cash shortfall of €5.5 million and predicted that it would need €13.8 million by the end of October.
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Daniel Duclos

Daniel Duclos, the company’s charismatic president, remains confident that the problems will be resolved but said in a written statement that the company would now consolidate and focus on its existing business areas.

The growth of Access Industrie has been meteoric. Formed in 1996 it had a turnover of €2.3 million in 1997. Today it has more than 6000 platforms at 21 locations and has recently added 30 top of the range Liebherr and Demag cranes to its fleet. Turnover in 2001 was €54 million. The company is active in France, Spain and Portugal and had indicated a desire to move into Germany and other countries.